Thursday, April 30, 2009

It's rather convenient that I tested negative for swine flu. Not so convenient that I'm running a fever, find it increasingly difficult to move or concentrate, and can't accomplish anything school related.

"Lots of people (in fact, most people) do not dream about morphing their current life into something dramatic and cool and metaphoric. Most people see their life as a job that they have to finish; if anything, they want their life to be less complicated than it already is. They want their life to have only one meaning."

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The latest RA podcast installment: Ellen Allien, for your listening pleasure. Ironically enough, I was listening to Allien last night while reading a seemingly endless business law chapter... and now here she is mixing for RA. I haven't listened to her set just yet, but if it's anything like her normal sound, it'll be great to study to.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

It's almost midnight, and here I am slaving away with my Spanish group on our project. Except not really; we've been chilling for quite some time. My living room is not exactly conducive to good study behavior. Did I mention that Shanna joined us as well? Her presence is far from necessary, but it's welcome all the same.

Friday night we saw The Kills at Emo's. It was fabulous - totally was only one row back from the stage. Alison Mosshart knows how to rock it (sooooo sexy!). I wasn't expecting much and am not exactly familiar with all of their work. 'Midnight Boom', their latest album, is the only one I've managed to break into so far.

Ugh too much school, too little time... but CLA is still in full swing! I regret not being to make it to more screenings, but I'm hoping to hit up 'Cinco días sin Nora' tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. The director will be in attendance.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

CLA screened 'All Inclusive' or 'Todo Incluido' earlier this evening at the Paramount Theatre. The turnout was great, the crowd was buzzing, and the flick was delightful.

'Todo Incluido' tells the tale of a family on vacation at an over-the-top all inclusive resort in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Unexpected situations arise, revelations are made all around, and ultimately a once highly dysfunctional family is brought back together.

Recently divorced sister admits to punk kid sister that she may be a lesbian.

Punk kid sister smokes a joint in bed.

Mom entertains sleeping with a scuba instructor (who feigns being French in order to win her affections).

And that's just some of what was going down... the father hides the fact that he's been diagnosed with a fatal heart condition whilst little bro talks up a hot Spanish girl on the internet.

While the movie is somewhat harried, and perhaps hard to believe (note the slighly cheesy hurricane metaphor used throughout to reinforce the state of familial turmoil), it's an enjoyable and occasionally moving film. It's one to make you feel a bit introspective and maybe more apt to let loose every once in a while.

To tie this off, 'Todo Incluido' was the perfect opener for the 12th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival. I regret not being able to make it to the after party tonight, but a Spanish paper so unfortunately beckons. But! I couldn't be more excited about the films and parties to come :)

Monday, April 20, 2009

Yup, I've been slacking when it comes to blogging this past week... definitely no shortage of relevant topics/things/ideas/music to blog about, just lacking the requisite time :( I also owe you guys a Sunday night music post...

At long, long last I turned 21 today, at 8:45 p.m. to be exact. Q feliz. Q bakan. But I'm studying at Mozart's now until close mmhmm. We did dinner/drinks at Malaga on 2nd. Many thanks to the friends who came out with me - it was really a great birthday. For some reason it seems like I always end up crying on birthdays... but not this year.

Happy Tuesday eve- will get back on top of this... soon? Possible CLA updates tomorrow though!c.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Children are really bizarre, fascinating creatures. We reminisced over dinner last night (FREE chicken fried chicken at Threadgills - many thanks to Frances for the heads up!) about the oddities and absurdities that somehow come to define childhood. Honest to god, we do some weird shit as kids.

If you're a fan of NPR on facebook, you've probably already seen this... What music should first grace your child's ears? What kind of impact, if any, might it have? I have no clue what I might've first heard - something at least acceptable in the 80s?

Got to be off to CLA for the afternoon. The festival begins next Wednesday!!! & the schedule is finally up on the site. Check it out :)

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

What a nice surprise. I arrive home late from studying for my MKT exam (which is tomorrow)... and what to my wondering eyes should appear but the next Resident Advisor podcast! And mixed by Booka Shade at that :)

I'm giving it a go now - it's chill. Great background noise while studying.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

It's that time of the week :) Sunday night song! I nearly threw another minimal track at you (I've been listening to some smooth shit all evening while studying), but instead decided to go with an old favorite. Suffice it to say, I love this song. Love the lyrics. Love Laura Veirs. She's fantastical, imaginative, brilliant, moving, deep, everything.

This vid occasionally edges up on pure corniness... but more than anything else, it's precious.

Good luck with your studies & have a great week! Mine is jam-packed & looks a little daunting. Send me your good vibes.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Happy bunny day :) I'm home for the weekend chilling with the fam. The padres threw an early birthday dinner for me. Good times despite the fact that I've fallen victim to a rather vicious head cold. All I can say is it better be over and done with by next weekend.

I find this work by Wlodarski... well... thought provoking. Enjoy it and interpret it for yourself. Gah I'm hoping that I won't be ushered off to mass tomorrow morning. I've heard it put this way before, but cannot recollect from who - 'I'm not fortunate enough to be a person of faith'... but I'm alright with this, really.

btw, I'm 99.5% sure there will be a student discount of some sort. I'm waiting to hear back from the director on this, but I'll pass the info on to you guys as soon as I'm made aware ;)

Check this brief article from Variety on the flick. Opening night is guaranteed to be fun no matter what. We're expecting a crowd, members of the cast should be attending, and there will be an after party. And, of course, I'll be there - THE number one reason why you should be, too.

The official schedule will be released soon! We've had some difficulties fitting in all the films and sorting out things with the various theaters, but the schedule should be going to print by Monday! I'm planning to blog on movies that I'm particularly excited about seeing (including a Brazilian horror flick & an animated adults-only showcase). Cool stuff.

Let your friends know about the festival & drag them along to some screenings! It'll be blast.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

This opinion piece headlines next week's edition of the New Yorker, quite possibly my favorite magazine. Packer presents a quick rundown of Barack's first hundred days and offers some perspective, however biased, on his political philosophy.

I'm reticent to express my political views through a medium such as this, as I don't intend my blog to be polemical in the least. I'd like it to be thought-provoking and dynamic, hence the occasional break in music-oriented posts (sorry, can't help wanting to share it!).

Bits and pieces of Packer's commentary slighly perturb me, but the same goes for a great many parts of conservative rhetoric. To become polarized in any one direction is a dangerous, dangerous thing. I encourage you to form your own opinions and to read everything with a grain (maybe a boulder?) of salt.

An excerpt:

"He promised a federal guarantee of warranties for owners of G.M. and Chrysler cars, but he won’t put the government in temporary control of the banks, which are at the heart of the economic crisis. He is willing to spend $275 billion for homeowners’ relief, but he won’t let the government enter into the business of making direct loans."

...a point where I see Packer's thought process erring... just the slightest bit. Drastic intervention (i.e. government control of banks) unless absolutely necessary, frightens me.

Planning to post a few super chill minimal tracks soon - totally my style. Be on the lookout ;)

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Once again, an old favorite. Kind of Notwist era for me, maybe just a little later. It's off 'Hallelujah Sirens' - an incredible album. I've been feeling slightly off, slightly melancholic, slightly shit all day... but this band will hopefully push/shove you into Monday mildly uplifted, whether you want it to roll around or not. At least you're listening to good music, right?

"The desire to be cool is - ultimately - the desire to be rescued. It's the desire to be pulled from the unwashed masses of society. It's the desire to be advanced beyond the faceless humanoid robots who will die unheralded deaths and never truly matter, mostly because they all lived the same pedestrian life. Without the spoils of exclusionary coolness, we're just cogs in the struggle."- by guess who?

"We all agree it's too big to keep up with, that we're surrounded by life, that we'll never understand it, so we center it all in by swigging Scotch from the bottle and when it's empty I run out of the car and buy another one, period."- Kerouac, Big Sur, p. 65

"I see myself as just doomed, pitiful– An awful realization that I have been fooling myself all my life thinking there was a next thing to do to keep the show going and actually I'm just a sick clown and so is everybody else– All all of it, pitiful as it is, not even really any kind of commonsense animate effort to ease the soul in this horrible sinister condition (of mortal hopelessness) so I'm left sitting there in the sand after having almost fainted and stare at the waves which suddenly are not waves at all, with I guess what must have been the goopiest downtrodden expression God if He exists must've ever seen in His movie career - Eh vache, I hate to write– All my tracks laid bare itself laid bare, even the realization that they're laid bare itself laid bare as a lotta bunk– The sea seems to yell to me GO TO YOUR DESIRE DON'T HANG AROUND HERE– For after all the sea must be like God...."- p. 41

I'm finally reading ‘Big Sur' by Kerouac (thanks, Tom!). Whenever I have a spare moment, I attempt to take in a quick chapter - during commercial breaks when Kim and I are mindlessly watching Friends, or at odd intervals, like right now, when I should commence learning OM, but have so foolishly decided to ramble for an odd half hour on my enduring love for Kerouac.

Here's something I scribbled out in the blog that preceded, and I supposed fathered, this one. Oh how I have grown up as a blogger, and how I hope that I might continue to grow...

‘Kerouac makes you want to go traipsing about in the wilderness. He injects the fury of insanity into your soul. He invents his own words, messes with your head, reaches incredible highs, and drinks like no other. When I read his work, I feel like I'm siphoning off some of his soul, swallowing it and planting it in my core. Kerouac is a zany, hell of a brilliant bastard.'

Nothing can quite compare to ‘On the Road' or the effect it had on me as a naive and hopelessly quiet high school junior. Every subsequent Kerouac work that I read simply builds a little, maybe repeats and backtracks over familiar territory at times, but still manages to add a few more shades of meaning and a pinch more spice to the pot. I find understanding in Kerouac when I am both at my best and my worst. I have always been challenged by the fact that I exist, have questioned myself to near desperation, and have nearly been destroyed... but I have also loved, witnessed, and welcomed the beauty that can be inherent to life.

Uncertainty plagues me. The fear of what is or is not to come is ever-present and sick, but the tragedies of life can ultimately be beautiful. I learned this once, crying red rosebud tears, and expecting nothing more from my existence. Only certain kindred souls have approached or acknowledged the same abyss, however dramatic it is to state it so.

Kerouac affirms me. His effervescent passion, such a perfect mingling of glee and pain, is me in written form. ‘Big Sur' is another step, another adventure. I don't know if I can parallel it to this semester just yet - it's far from over. All I know is that I didn't hang around, and I think I'm heading toward my desire... at the very least, I hope so.

Kerouac is not for everyone, but I wholeheartedly recommend you give him a shot nonetheless :)

---Side note.- Kim, Shanna, and I went to see Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! at Forty Acres Fest. The crowd lacked enthusiasm big time, but MEC did an impeccable job putting on the show. Kudos to John and the gang. Love this song -

Friday, April 3, 2009

Haz click aquí to hear 'Tantas Veces' by Entre Ríos. This band is out of Argentina, as can be readily noted by their distinct accents. Hear all that shhh shaaa stuff? It's slightly evocative of Italian... Anyway, they define their style as electro-pop and definitely deserve a bigger following. Plus if you're trying to work on your Spanish, Entre Ríos is lyrically one of the easiest to understand.

I woke up briefly to go take a Spanish quiz at 11:00 and have since managed to sleep away the entire afternoon. Yeah... and about studying for Operations Management? Totally didn't happen. Thursdays nights will be my downfall ;)